Secure Upload on no-shell server

Dear LinuxManagers,

I think I've forgotten the number of times I've almost asked a question. 
  This one is finally an issue that's barely time-critical enough to 
warrant a post.  My server admin needs a secure ftp-type replacement for 
users who do not have shell access, so that we all can edit our sites 
without a web-form.

Ideally, we're looking for something that's easy enough that maybe even 
Joe SixPack will be able to use it with some coaching.  Graphical for 
windows would be a bonus, but ideally something with a textUI that can 
be launched periodically by windows 98 people and/or cronned on unix 
would be completely ideal.  Here's the catch:

Users do not have ssh access; they have SCP and SFTP.  That, in itself, 
is a surprisingly common goal that's been surprisingly hard to provide 
without implementing some flawed solution requiring its own odd 
workarounds.  We'd be willing to ditch sftp/scp for something else 
that's also moderately secure and just as simple, if it gets us better 
features.  As it is, we're using rssh to provide scp and sftp access but 
no ssh;  this frees us from worry about securing .bashrc files and other 
swallow-the-bird-to-catch-the-spider-who-ate-the-fly carry-on nonsense 
that quickly escalates into something unmaintainable.  :-)

We've already looked at a few solutions that didn't make the cut, based 
either on missing features or us not seeing the features we need:

RSync:
  - It seems to need ssh for secure xfer.  We do sftp/scp.

Unison:
  - You know your niches.
  - It seems to need ssh for secure xfer.

PHP Upload + JS FileMan in https on server:
  - No shell/cron mechanism.

bare SCP:
  - It has no Update mechanism, so it wants to re-send the entire
    site.

SFTP+mirror.pl:
  - Mirror.pl hated using sftp.  I think it was the directory listing
    or a similar feature missing or different behaviour with sftp.

TCP over SSH tunnel:
  - If you weren't a minor, you'd be shot for such abuse of TCP.
  - Falls over at moderate link saturation.
  - It also seems to require ssh-not-scp on the server.

TCP app over IPSEC:
  - come set it up (IPSec has proved non-trivial to set up;  hours of
    personal attention would be required).
  - unusable for WIN98 endpoints
  - otherwise, very cool

TCP app over openVPN
  - unusable for win98 endpoints (which are 90%+ of the people)

Any suggestions you have, even if they involve one of the rejected ones, 
would be appreciated.  As always and of course, I'll summarise (please 
harass me in 7 days should I forget) and my apologies if (hail murphy) 
someone has posted this very question within the last 7 days.

Lastly and Mostly, thanks for your time.

  - bishop

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